Failed SY0-401 Exam Today - Take Aways

Hi Everyone, I took the exam today and unfortunately failed. Received a 71 and required a 75.

I wanted to share with everyone my experience in hopes you can have a chance at it.

First and foremost, I would like to encourage people preparing for this exam to not take this lightly. The questions are wordy and I've come across some questions with CLI scenarios. I've been in IT industry for 10 years and there were some tricky questions. Take your time and read the questions carefully. I was surprised by this.

For study material, I used
Professor Messier (videos and guides) and
Comptia.*********exam.Sy0-401.v2017-12-27.by.claudia.1781q practice questions.

The scenario question I had was

Match the type of attack (i.e. phishing, spam, whaling, and etc). given the scenario.

I only had 72 questions. Does anyone know why it wasn't 90 questions?

I have since scheduled a re-test for June and this time I will be more prepared!

Good Luck Everyone!

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Comments

Mdaud

Its good to hear that you are not giving up and already scheduled for re-test. I believe your 2nd attempt you will be more prepared. I'm also planning to take the exam sometime in June. Good Luck

AaronW1994

Unlucky, but you'll definitely have gained experience. Personally I used Darryl Gibsons book, it made studying for Security+ so much easier than Prof Messer's, I definetly recommend that you give it a try.

Best of luck to your next attempt

Pseudonym

Uses **** and still fails.

A new low.

Khalifa_IT

Sorry to hear that.
I plan to prepare for this certificate after passing CCNA Sec after two weeks from now.
any advice ?

cyberguypr

Yeah, don't use ****. Not sure how I mised this gem.

VinylPirate

Hey Sorry to hear about your recent exam. Might I suggest try to take the 501 its usually always more streamlined in my experience although I also only took the exam once. It keeps non-relevant items from 3 years ago out so you can focus in on current topics.

NetworkNewb

Pseudonym wrote: »

Uses **** and still fails.

A new low.

LOL

shochan

They **** and they score...a failing grade...I'm not really sorry for your loss

Pseudonymous

kaytriga wrote: »

I only had 72 questions. Does anyone know why it wasn't 90 questions?

It's a MAXIMUM of 90 questions... meaning there's a chance you will get less questions.
https://certification.comptia.org/certifications/security

Failing an exam sucks, but like everyone said, **** aren't the way to succeed. I passed using Professor Messer & Darril Gibson. I'd recommend those to help you study.

Woolnut

I recently took the exam and was asked 70 questions, with two simulations. Total Seminar's / Mike Meyers Udemy videos managed to get me through the exam with some help from Professor Messer's revision guide / notes.

kaytriga

Hi Everyone,

As committed, I've rewrote my 401+ exam and passed today. 2nd attempt and scored 800.

Even with the added studying and practice test, it was still a difficult exam none the less.

Word of advice for everyone preparing to take this exam to not take this lightly.

Best of luck to everyone preparing to write it.

kaytriga

Study your cryptography and ensure you know the concepts -thoroughly. There were a few questions I got hunged up and simply knowing the definition didn't help but understand the different scenarios on where you would "use" each concept would help.

kaytriga

Thanks for the encouraging words. I passed today on my 2nd attempt! Good luck on your challenge this month!.

kaytriga

Thanks for the suggestion. I will keep this noted for future exams.

TheComputerPlumber

kaytriga wrote: »

Hi Everyone,

As committed, I've rewrote my 401+ exam and passed today. 2nd attempt and scored 800.

Even with the added studying and practice test, it was still a difficult exam none the less.

Word of advice for everyone preparing to take this exam to not take this lightly.

Best of luck to everyone preparing to write it.

Congrats!!! I took same exact test last Friday and failed with a 612. I had the same 2 sims in the beginning and a total of 72 questions. Was the test on your 2nd attempt the same number of questions and sims? Were the questions the same or different? Perhaps easier? I'm kinda scared to retest again because I failed it before in 2015 732 on that try and ran out of time during questions. I'm definitely going to take your advice as well as everyone on here about studying a bit harder and making sure I understand the objectives I missed and know them thoroughly.

TheComputerPlumber

What were you study materials the second time around? I read Darill Gibsons book cover to cover and did his online practice test and sims. Now I have incorporated using Messers video's and CBT Nuggets Videos to fully understand.

kaytriga

Hi, great you have a plan to take this test again. Don't be discouraged, you'll eventually pass but you do have to put in the work and time. And if there's any advice I can give you is to please don't procrastinate on rescheduling for your exam and ensure you thoroughly understand the concepts and not only the definitions.

BEST OF LUCK!

kaytriga

Those are the same study materials I used mostly. Also for the topics in which I was weaker, I used simple youtube videos on the concepts and examples. i.e. cryptography for me

i found this help too to get another view of the ideas.

Pseudonym

Ridiculous.

scaredoftests

^^^^^
What is?

Pseudonym

Several people tell him not to use ****. He ignores it and then comes back expecting a pat on the back after admitting to just using them again to pass the test.

scaredoftests

oh..okay. Agreed